Assessing how well Strategic Flood Risk Assessments are working

This project assessed whether Strategic Flood Risk Assessments (SFRAs) are an effective way of achieving the objectives of the latest planning policy guidance.

• From: Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Published: 18 February 2021

• Category: Policy, governance and funding
• Topics: Adaptation, Decision making with uncertainty, Health, safety and wellbeing, Partnership working, Resilient infrastructure, Spatial planning, Strategy and planning, Sustainable drainage systems
• Project status: Completed
• Project code: FD2610
• Date of completion: 30 June 2009

Documents

Land use planning - assessing the quality and Influence of strategic flood risk assessments - abstract (8.1 MB) PDF

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Details

Strategic Flood Risk Assessments (SFRAs) are an important part of the way Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) make decisions. This includes how to keep the risk of flooding to a minimum in new developments. This project investigated whether SFRAs are an effective tool for partners, such as LPAs and the Environment Agency, to work together to achieve the objectives of the planning process.

This study showed that most local authorities had now produced or updated their SFRA since Planning Policy Statement 25 was introduced in December 2006. This is an improvement on 2004 / 2005 when a strategic approach to flood risk assessment was needed, but SFRAs were not specifically required by government guidance.

The project was started in 2007 and completed in 2009 at a cost of £85,960.

Published 18 February 2021